2014 CLOTHING INDUSTRY WAGE DISPUTE RESOLVED.

The COSATU affiliated Southern African Clothing & Textile Workers' Union (SACTWU), has now finally resolved its 2014 clothing industry national wage dispute with clothing employers. The new wage agreement was adopted by and signed at a Special Council meeting of the clothing industry bargaining council, earlier today. The meeting was held in Cape Town, at the Head Office of the bargaining council.

Approximately 80 000 clothing workers nationally will benefit from the agreement. The key elements of the agreement are as follows:

1. The wage increases are backdated to 1 September 2014, which is the date on which wage increases were due.

2. For metro areas (i.e main cities such as Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg etc), is a total labour cost increase of 8%. Of this, 7.5% will be allocated as a wage increase and 0.5% to improve employer provident fund contributions in Western Cape and Gauteng. For other metro areas, the extra 0.5% will be allocated to improve the annual bonus payable by 0.5%.

3. The allocations as outlined in clause 2 above, will also be applicable to Non-metro A- and Country areas.

4. For Non-metro B areas (Botshabelo, Isithebe, Newcastle, Ladysmith etc), the total package increases will be 10.5% for general workers and 11% for machinists. Of this, 0.5% will be allocated to improve the annual bonus.

5. The agreement is a two year agreement, commencing 1 September 2014 until 31 August 2016.

6. For the second year of the agreement, the increases will be CPI as at November 2014 plus 1%, provided that this construct is not more than 8.5%. Should it be more than 8.5%, the parties will re-open wage negotiations. Should it be less than 8.5%, the actual increases shall be firstly CPI plus 1% but no less than the rand value of the 2014 total labour cost increase.

7. Those companies who in practice currently pay wages of between 80% and 100% of the gazetted rate, shall introduce a compulsory incentive which must allow workers to earn up to 100% or more of the gazetted rate. The affected companies shall have a 2 month period with effect from today to finalise such incentive provisions at plant level.

8. At each future meeting of the bargaining council, each party will be required to table at least one concrete proposal on how to strengthen compliance with the industry agreements.

9. The parties have agreed to take such steps as may be necessary to strengthen the operations of the bargaining council.

10. The agreement will now be submitted to the Minister of Labour for Gazettal and extension to non-party companies. Part of the request will be for the Minister to extend the new gazetted amending agreement for a further period until 31 August 2018 (but the parties will still negotiate in between).

Statement issued by Andre Kriel, SACTWU General Secretary, September 16 2014

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